well, i served -- i told secretary clinton when she asked me to do this -- it came out of the blue. office and me to her i thought she wanted another medal on east asia, where i had been working the previous four years. she asked me to go to iraq. i thought about it overnight and i agree to go for one year. have been april 2010, right in the middle of the government formation period. i agree to stay on until the end of august. as for security, one time in july in 2009, my motorcade was and it wasy an ied an unpleasant experience, we have lost a lot of people through the ample vice -- through the improvised explosive devices. i had the pleasure of hosting a rocket that landed in my front yard as i was walking outside the door. i had a couple of experiences. you do not really think about them at the time, but afterwards , you kind of wonder what was i doing there? why was i taking that kind of chance? many people had that experience. host: josh in saint peters, missouri, on our line for independents. caller: good morning. i love c-span. i just wanted to point out to you, i heard a fas